Opollo’s Current lineup of reds:

I had heard some pretty good things about Opolo so made this one of our stops while touring Paso Robles this past weekend. I was not all that impressed overall.

2000 Sangiovese ($18) Color is a light brownish-red, with a muddled nose lacking much in the way of distinction. Showing some earth notes and subdued fruit, this was one dimensional and uninspiring. 80 points.

2000 Pinot Noir ($32) Deep red in color, the nose is candy-ish and hits me over the head with banana. Good weight on the palate, but still can’t get over having bananas in my pinot, interesting but odd. 83 points.

2000 Merlot ($26) Like so many PR Merlots, the nose shows fairly green. Grainy texture with good merlot fruit in the background and somewhat drying tannins. 82 points

2000 Cabernet ($32) Dark red color and showing good, ripe Cabernet fruit this is quite tannic and need some time to settle. Should improve in a year or two. 86 points

2000 Syrah ($28) Cloudy raspberry in color, shows much lighter than expected, a bit thin and one-dimensional. 82 points

2000 Summit Creek Zin ($18) The nose just jumps from the glass showing cranberry jam and anise. Spicy, anise and pepper on the palate with fairly high acidity. Good, not great. 85 points.

2001 Mountain Zinfandel ($22) 15.5%, 1% Residual sugar really makes itself known, very jammy sweet fruit – perfect after dinner wine if you want something moderately but not overly sweet. 86 points.

2000 Opolo Rhapsody (Bordeaux Blend)
The 2000 Rhapsody is a Bordeaux blend consisting of Cabernet, Cab Franc, and Petite Verdot, and is currently a “wine club” only wine selling for $55 (IIRC). Luckily they were pouring this in the tasting room, and it was the best of the lineup. Plenty of chocolate aromas in the glass with a solid core of fruit, nice balancing acidity and firm up front ripe tannins. This really needs at least 2 more years to come together, 89 points. However, not worthy of the $55 price of admission